“If a man will
begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to
begin with doubts he shall end in certainties”—Francis
Bacon (1561-1626) [Quoted from Milestones of Science by Curt
Suplee, p.70, published by the National Geographic Society, 2000]

[A
note of caution: The content of this article may offend some readers. The
writer will not take any responsibility in the event of hurt feeling or
damage caused as result of reading this essay. Read this article at your own
risk]

Abstract

This article delves
into the very authorship of the Holy Qur’an—a new way of looking at the
Holy Qur’an. An enquiry is made using logical reasoning and historical
references on the authorship of the Qur’an. Thus this methodology is
totally opposed to the blind believers who accept the authenticity of the
Qur’an unquestionably. By analysing, dissecting and carefully interpreting
the contents of the Qur’an, the Ahadith, Sirah (Muhammad’s
biography) the author has identified several parties who had undoubtedly
contributed to the composition of the Qur’anic verses. It was not Allah
who wrote the Qur’an; it was not even Muhammad alone who did this either.
The Qur’an is not the creation of a single entity or a single person.
There were several parties involved in the composition, scribing, amending,
inserting and deleting the Qur’anic verses. The most important
personalities involved in the creation of the Qur’an were: Imrul Qays,
Zayd b. Amr, Hasan b. Thabit, Salman, Bahira, ibn Qumta, Waraqa and Ubayy b.
Ka’b. Muhammad himself was involved in the make-up of a limited number of
verses, but the most influential person who motivated Muhammad in the
invention of Islam and the opus of the Qur’an was, perhaps, Zayd b. Amr,
who preached ‘Hanifism’. Muhammad later metamorphosed Zayd’s
‘Hanifism’ into Islam. Therefore, the assertion that Islam is not a new
religion stands to be true. However, the important finding is that the
Qur’an is definitely not the words of Allah—it is a human-made scripture
which Muhammad simply passed up as Allah’s final words to mankind. Another
important aspect of this essay is that among the ancient religions that the
writers of the Qur’an incorporated in it, perhaps the practices of the
Sabeans is crucial. In fact, the rituals of 5 prayers and the 30 days
fasting were actually adapted from the Sabeans. Qur’an, thus, is a
compilation of various religious books that existed during Muhammad’s
time. Muhammad, not Allah, simply adopted, picked and chose from various
sources and created the Qur’an. While many parties contributed to the
Qur’an, Muhammad became its chief editor—to say it plainly.

Introduction

According to Islam,
questioning the Allah’s absolute authorship of the Qur’an is a serious
blasphemy. A person may face death sentence simply for nurturing an atom of
doubt on Qur’an’s authenticity. The Qur’an is above all. Nothing in
the creation of Allah is holier than the Qur’an. However, human being what
he is—ever inquisitive—I started doubting Qur’an’s authorship in my
very childhood--when I was introduced in the recitation of this Holy
Scripture in a very formal manner. I spent a couple of years learning a few
introductory verses under the tutorship of a local ‘Hujur’ (Islamic
religion teacher) in the local mosque. This ‘Hujur’ taught the Qur’an
to a group of us by holding a rattan cane that looked quite shiny as he used
to oil the cane every day before his ‘Murid’ (learners) arrived in the
mosque. I can vouch that none of us ever liked to study the Qur’an—it
was the most boring and the most painful task during our childhood. We
simply memorised like parrots, certain verses without understanding a single
word of them The ‘Hujur’ also did not know the meanings of those verses.
Whenever we asked any question about any verse, the answer was a few stroke
of the cane from the ‘Hujur’. The learning of the recitation of the
Qur’an became associated with corporeal punishment and child-abuse. Thus,
we developed a deep disdain towards the Qur’an recitation in particular a
dislike for the Mullahs in general.

Later, after I left
my University and started working, a colleague of mine presented me with a
copy of the translation of the Holy Qur’an by Abdullah Yusuf Ali. My
colleague was a diehard ‘Tabligi’ (a religious proselytiser) and
exhorted me to read the translation carefully. He vouched that after I had
comprehended the true messages of the Holy Scripture my life will change for
ever—for the better, he insisted. Reluctantly, I started to read the
English translation—verse by verse, passage by passage. The more I read,
the more I was shocked, disturbed, astonished, bewildered and resentful. I
could not believe that a book which is supposed to be the handiwork of the
most compassionate, the most merciful and the most forgiving Allah could
contain such a terrible amount of hate, terror, call for murder, war,
vengeance and most of all a blanket plea for the destruction of all those
who do not subscribe to the Qur’anic view of the world. Of course, there
were a few verses which were very poetical, beautifully crafted, rhythmic
and sometimes rich in spirituality. Apart from those handful ‘good’
stuff I found the vast part of the Qur’an simply nonsensical, and
not-to-talk about the those incriminating verses exhorting the believers to
murder and wage an unrelenting war (Jihad) against the unbelievers. I
started questioning: how could a merciful, compassionate Allah write such a
cranky book that is nothing more than a trash and a manual of terror, war
and plunder? When my ‘Tabligi’ colleague asked how I was doing with the
Qur’an, I simply told him I was doing fine—elaborating further that I
discovered plenty of new astonishing materials in the Qur’an which I never
thought existed in it. He simply smiled and said, “The Qur’an is
wonderful, isn’t it?” I replied, “You said it!”

A few years
later, I started to ponder deeply on the Qur’an. Using the works of other
translators, as well as the Tafsirs (explanation), I read and re-read
the Holy Scripture--several times to make sure that what they translated and
explained were absolutely correct. The more I learned about the Qur’an the
more I became distraught, disturbed and angry—angry because I felt that I
was utterly let down by a killer religion which was imposed on me due to my
birth. The stuff I read in the Qur’an jolted me so much that I wanted to
find the answer to my perennial question—who really authored the Qur’an?
It took me a long time and many years of painstaking work to arrive at the
answer of that question. This article tries to answer that question. I had
been planning this essay for a long time, and now, after writing it I feel
it is for you to ponder too—‘Who authored the Qur’an?’

During my
investigative phase I found that a lot of people were involved in the
compilation and the construction of the Qur’an. Unknown to the vast
majority of Muslims, and buried deep inside the Qur’an, Ahadith and
Sirah there are copious evidence to reject, out of hand, the contention that
the Qur’an is the creation of Allah. Making Allah the author of the Quran,
I think, is the prime lie perpetrated on mankind for more than a millennium.
We can, with certainty, say that it was not even Muhammad alone who authored
the Qur’an.In fact, the major part of the Qur’an was actually either
composed by or inspired and written by a few other individuals. Most notable
among them were:

Imrul Qays—an ancient poet of
Arabia who died a few decades before Muhammad’s birth

Zayd b. Amr b. Naufal—an
‘apostate’ of his time who preached and propagated Hanifism

Labid—another poet

Hasan b. Thabit—the official
poet of Muhammad

Salman, the Persian—Muhammad’s
confidante’ and an advisor

Bahira—a Nestoraian Christian
monk of the Syrian church

Jabr—a Christian neighbour of
Muhammad

Ibn Qumta—a Christian slave

Khadijah—Muhammad’s first wife

Waraqa—Khadijah’s cousin
brother

Ubay b. Ka’b—Muhammad’s
secretary and a Qur’an scribe

Muhammad himself

There were other
parties involved too. They were:

The Sabeans

Aisha—Muhammad’s child bride

Abdallah b. Salam b. al-Harith—a
Jewish convert to Islam

Mukhyariq—a Rabbi and another
Jewish convert to Islam

Of course, my list
of the possible authors of the Qur’an is not exhaustive. There may be many
other parties involved that I might not have even heard of. But for a
concise discussion the above list should be ample enough, I guess. In this
article I have simply enumerated the contribution of the above sources in
the authorship of the Qur’an.

Now, to understand
the Qur’an and its writer/s, we must, first of all, recognise the
background of Muhammad, purportedly the ultimate and the best creation of
Allah.

The
Pagan origin of Muhammad

It is an absolute
fact that Muhammad was born of pagan parents. His father, Abdullah and his
mother, Amina were both pagans and they used to worship many idols. His
entire childhood (probably up to his teen) was spent in paganism. To day,
many Muslims will find it extremely hard to digest this fact. However,
Muhammad’s pagan origin is disclosed by Hisham ibn al-Kalbi. On page 17 of
his important work, Kitab al-Asnam (The Book of Idols) he
writes (Hisham al-Kalbi, Kitab al-Asnam, p.17):

‘We have
been told that the Apostle of God once mentioned al-Uzza saying, “I have
offered a white sheep to al-‘Uzza, while I was a follower of the religion
of my people.” ‘

In the statement above Muhammad clearly
admits his past adherence to paganism—the then religion of the Quraysh.

Initially, Muhammad even eulogized the
important gods (or idols) of the pagans by agreeing with the Quraysh—at
some point that these gods were the intercessors of Allah. On the same page
Hisham ibn al-Kalbi writes:

The Quraysh were wont to circumambulate
the Ka’bah and say:

By Allat and al-‘Uzza,

And Manah, the third idol besides.

Verily they are the most exalted females

Whose intercession is to be sought.

These were also called “the Daughters
of Allah,” and were supposed to intercede before God. When the Apostle of
God was sent god revealed unto him [concerning them] the following:

053.019
Have ye seen Lat. and 'Uzza,053.020 And another, the third (goddess), Manat?

053.021
What! for you the male sex, and for
Him, the female?053.022 Behold, such would be indeed a division most unfair!

053.023
These are nothing but names which ye
have devised,- ye and your fathers,- for which Allah has sent down no
authority (whatever). They follow nothing but conjecture and what their own
souls desire!- Even though there has already come to them Guidance from
their Lord! (Hisham ibn al-Kalbi, ‘Kitab al-Asnam,’ p.17)

When Muhammad became an adult and
started to attend the annual assembly of poets at Ukaz he was deeply
impressed and moved by the thoughts, eloquence, sentiment, freethinking and
humanism expounded by many of those poets. He started questioning the
idol-worshipping and began to start preaching a new concept of one God, the
creator—similar to the concepts of the Jews and the Christians of that
time. Nonetheless, he was confused as to which God ought to be his God.
Allah, a deity (a moon god--that is why the symbols placed at every mosque
is a crescent moon) at that time, was the supreme God of the pagans. Their
only fault was that besides Allah, they used to worship as the intercessors
for Allah, the supreme other smaller gods/goddesses like: Hubal, Al-lat, Al-Uzza,
Manat…etc. So, in the beginning of his new concept of an almighty creator
Allah was out of his mind. Besides, at that time the magicians, the
soothsayers, the sorcerers, and even the Satan worshippers used to vow by
Allah. Thus, Muhammad found it utterly despicable to make Allah his God (ilah).

During those pagan days the people of
Yemen used to worship another deity whose name was Ar-Rahman. Muhammad,
for a while, adopted the name Ar-Rahman for God in place of Allah.
Coincidentally, Ar-Rahman was also the Jewish word Rahmana which was
a name for God in the Talmudic period (Noldeke: The Koran, TheOrigins of the Koran, p.53). Muhammad cleverly thought that by using
the word Ar-Rahman he ought to be able to attract to his new ‘religion’,
the Jews as well as some pagans.

However, when he declared himself
to be the messenger of Ar-Rahman, the Meccans, too, were at a loss and
confused. The Meccans did not know of any Ar-Rahman other than the Ar-Rahman
of al-Yamamah (some writers say Ar-Rahman was at Yemen). To verify
Muhammad’s claim the Quraysh sent a delegation to Medina Jews, as they
thought that Ar-Rahman, truly, was a deity in Yemen or Yamamah. Islamic
Historian Ibn Sa’d (Ibn Sa’d, vol.i, pp.189-190) writes:

“The
Quraysh sent al-Nadr Ibn al-Harith Ibn ‘Alaqamah and ‘Uqbah Ibn abi
Mu’ayt and others to the Jews of Yathrib and told them to ask them (Jews)
about Muhammad. They came to Medinah and said to them (Jews): We have come
to you because a great affair has taken place amidst us. There is a humble
orphan who makes a big claim, considering himself to be the messenger of al-Rahman,
while we do not know any al-Rahman except the Rahman of al-Yamamah. They
said: Give the description before us. They gave his description, on which
they asked them who were his followers. They said: The lowly people among
us. Thereupon a scholar of from them laughed and said: he is the Prophet
whose attributes we find mentioned in our Scriptures; we also know that his
people will be most inimical to him.”

When we read, with an unbiased mind,
the first 50 Suras (in chronological order) of the Qur’an
we note Muhammad’s confusion regrading Lord, Allah and
Ar-Rahman. He was quite unsure of whom he should consider as his God (ilah).
Here is a summary of the first 50 Suras regarding Muhammad’s idea of his
God:

This demonstrates Muhammad’s initial
vacillation, confusion and ignorance of the affairs of his God (ilah).

The Qur’an also
confirms that when he started to preach his brand of faith Muhammad was
lost, confused and did not know much of religion. Here is what the Qur’an
writes:

Muhammad was lost,
then Allah guided him 93:7

093.007
And He found thee wandering, and He
gave thee guidance.

In the past Muhammad
was heedless 12:3, 42:52

012.003
We do relate unto thee the most
beautiful of stories, in that We reveal to thee this (portion of the)
Qur'an: before this, thou too was among those who knew it not.042.052 And thus have We, by
Our Command, sent inspiration to thee: thou knewest not (before) what was
Revelation, and what was Faith; but We have made the (Qur'an) a Light,
wherewith We guide such of Our servants as We will; and verily thou dost
guide (men) to the Straight Way,-

So, how did Muhammad
learn the basics of his new religion? Enter Imrul Qais and Zayd Ibn Amr.

Imrul
Qays

In ancient Arabia
poetry was a passion. Poets were highly regarded in society, and the words
of many accomplished poets were regarded as next to god’s words. In a
desert land, bereft of much entertainment and natural relaxation, the
ancient Arabs used to find solace, peace, tranquillity and even the raging
emotion of war and revenge through the mesmerising words of their poets.
Poets supplied the Arabs with their mental food. Seven such poets had their
verses permanently posted on the walls of Ka’ba. These verses were known
as Muallakat or suspended.

The Dictionary of
Islam (Hughe’s Dictionary of Islam, p.460)
writes that those verses were also known as Muzahhabat or the golden
poems because they were written in gold. The authors of those poetical
verses were: Zuhair, Trafah, Imrul Qays, Amru ibn Kulsum, al-Haris, Antarah
and Labid.

Among those seven
immortal poets the most famous was Imrul Qays, the undisputed ‘king’ or
the legend of Arabic poetry. He was a prince as his father was an Arab
tribal king. Through his passionate devotion to love and poetry he irked his
father and was banished from the palace. Thereafter, he lived a solitary
life by tending the sheep and keeping alive his undying dedication to
poetry. Eventually, he became a wanderer and led a melancholic life when his
tribe was almost eliminated in a tribal war. He travelled around and finally
arrived at Constantinople. It is said that he was put to death by the
Roman ruler of Constantinople because he won the heart of a Roman princess
through love and poetry. He died around the year 530-540 A.D., before
Muhammad’s birth. His matchless verses were on the lips of many Arabs, and
surely Muhammad had memorised many of his superb works. Muhammad is said to
have declared Imrul Qais the greatest of Arab poets. No doubt then that he
was keenly motivated to emulate Imrul Qais in the very early verses of the
Qur’an.

The chroniclers’
of the Qur’an usually list Sura al-Alaq (the clot, Sura 96) as the first
revelation of Allah to Muhammad. However, a systematic study of the Qur’an
may reveal that that may not be the case at all. In fact, the Dictionary
of Islam (Hughes Dictionary of Islam, p.485), citing Islamic sources,
writes that some earliest Suras (before the first revelation, Sura 96) are
most likely to be:

99—az-Zalzalah
(the Earthquake)

103—al-Asr
(the Declining Day)

100—al-Adiyat
(the Chargers)

1—al-Fatiha
(the Opening)

Those Suras were,
short, deep in spirituality and enthralling. It may be worthwhile to examine
two such short Suras; namely:

Sura 99 (the
Earthquake)

099.001When the earth is shaken to her (utmost)
convulsion,099.002And the earth throws up her
burdens (from within),

099.003
And man cries (distressed): 'What is the
matter with her?'-099.004On that Day will she declare
her tidings:099.005For that thy Lord will have
given her inspiration.099.006On that Day will men proceed
in companies sorted out, to be shown the deeds that they (had done).099.007Then shall anyone who has
done an atom's weight of good, see it!099.008And anyone who has done an
atom's weight of evil, shall see it

103.001
By (the Token of) Time (through the ages),103.002Verily Man is in loss,103.003Except such as have Faith,
and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth,
and of Patience and Constancy.

W. St. Calir-Tisdall,
the author of the famous essay The Origin of Islam (The Origins of
the Koran, pp.235-236), by comparing two passages from the Sabaa
Mu’allaqat, finds close similarity with the verses from the Qur’an.
Some of these verses are:

‘It
was the custom of the time for and orators to hang up their compositions
upon the Ka’aba; and we know the seven Mu’allaqat were exposed.
We are told that Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter, was one day repeating as
she went along the above verse. Just then she met the daughter of Imrul Qays,
who cried out, “O that’s what your father has taken from one of my
father’s poems, and calls it something that has come down to him out of
heaven;” and the story is commonly told amongst the Arabs until now.’

Thus, the
relationship between Imrul Qays’ poems and some of the early verses of the
Qur’an is pretty obvious. In this connection, W. St. Clair-Tisdall
elaborates (The Origins of the Koran, p.236) further:

“The
connection between the poetry of Imra’ul Qays and the Koran is so obvious
that the Muslims cannot but hold that they existed with the latter in the
Heavenly table from all eternity! What then will he answer? That the words
were taken from the Koran and entered in the poem?—an impossibility. Or
that their writer was not really Imra’ul Qays, but some other who, after
the appearance of the Koran, had the audacity to quote them there as they
now appear?—rather a difficult thing to prove!”

In fact, the word
Allah is found in Muallaqat as well as in the Diwan of poet
Labid. So when the Muslims claim the Qur’an to be the words of Allah, do
they mean Allah copied the Qur’anic verses from Imrul Qays?

We shall now briefly review the
contribution of Zayd ibn Amr to the authorship of the Holy Qur’an.

Ibn Ishaq, Muhammad b. Yasr, “Sirat
Rasul Allah,” translated in English by A. Guillaume; first by
published by Oxford University Press, London in 1955; fifteenth reprint by
Oxford University Press, Karachi, Pakistan, 2001.